I RATE ADS

sjbooher: Fine. I admit it. I like this one. B-.

jtherkal: Welcome back. I think being a father has made you soft. A.

sjbooher:Alright. I give in. Shankapotamus was the last straw I could no longer resist. A.

jtherkal: I like the baby. I like golf. I like the writing in these ads. A-.

jtherkal: The only things certain in life are death and taxes. The premise of this seems like it should be funny, but for some reason the ad doesn’t pay off. And the focus of this is on someone else, not on H&R Block. I also don’t like Death’s voice in this. Average. C.

sjbooher: I like everything about it, including when Death tells the guy he’ll seem in 8 days, and the dumb parking validation joke. Good work. A.

jtherkal: eTrade is holding on to the talking baby ads. And why not, they’re simple, funny, recognizable. And you can have that baby talk about anything. Do I remember what service they’re selling? Nope. But I remember the brand, and I remember “take these broken wings…” A-.

sjbooher: Yep, I give up. Count me in. My mom loves these too, if that counts. A.

sjbooher: SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! Also, SHUT UP! Fury, hate, rage and anger. Those are the emotions I feel with this whole campaign. Imagine annoyance as pure as Blue Magic heroine. These characters are all so “off-the-cuff”, so “cool”, so “it”, so “matter-of-fact”; they drive me crazy. And why do so many investment/financial ads feature one person just yapping? I feel like this whole genre is out of touch and needs some new ideas. F-

jtherkal: Whoa. Calm down. I don’t love this, but I don’t hate it. I actually like some of them. The cartoon-mapping over real people style gets your attention, but maybe not in a good way. To me, these are just really average financial ads. Person talking about money, blah blah blah. Maybe that’s what the target audience likes (target audience = real grown-ups with portfolios and a family). I agree there’s room in this category for someone to step in and do a breakthrough campaign. Talking heads and borrowing an annoying technique from A Scanner Darkly won’t do it. That movie sucked. C.

sjbooher: These existed BEFORE A Scanner Darkly, by the way, and I am getting so irritated right now thinking about how long these have run. Oh my god. Fury. I hated that movie too, if that counts. Maybe it is purely the animation style, now that you have brought that up.